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Misc Quetiapine (Seroquel) for anxiety.

underwater88

Greenlighter
Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
10
I was prescribed Seroquel 2 months ago for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. At first 25mg would knock me the fuck out, but my psychiatrist would upgrade my dosage weekly, and now I'm taking 600mg daily, it only makes me sleepy if I take 400mg or more at once. I have a lot of experience with benzodiazepines, mostly Clonazepam and Alprazolam, and I find that Seroquel doesn't work anything like them. I used to take a benzo whenever I felt anxious, but with Seroquel I have to take it 2-3 times a day in order to always have enough of it in my blood and therefore never get anxious. However, there are times when I do feel anxious even if I'm on Seroquel.

I'm just wondering if anybody has any experience with Seroquel for anxiety. I don't have bipolar or schizophrenic disorder, so anything regarding these two are not helpful to my case.
 
I found seroquel to be terrible for treating anxiety. Ever notice how when it hits your heart rate starts to increase? i used to get nasty heart palpitations from it. It is not an anxiety medication, its mechanism of action especially at a high dose shows this. Some antihistamines work a bit for anxiety like hydroxyzine but even then, not very well. But seroquel at a high dose is typically used as an antipsychotic.

Quetiapine is a dopamine, serotonin, and adrenergic antagonist, and a potent antihistamine with clinically negligible anticholinergic properties.

source: wikipedia

though it is a partial agonist at 5ht1a and being a potent antihistamine, it may reduce anxiety for some people but the side effects far outweigh any benefit it provides for anxiety. I was prescribed seroquel for anxiety as well but only 50mg at night. It did not help whatsoever with anxiety, actually made it worse, caused weight gain and night terrors among other terrible side effects.

After two months i completely stopped taking it due to the extreme side effects and switched to hydroxyzine which i later quit because it didn't really help with anxiety either.

In terms of treating anxiety, medications do not work very well, i did the whole benzo thing, didn't help. I'm dependent on etizolam now which is the first gabaergic that i've used that consistently works without increasing dose constantly. I stay at the same dose all the time and its effective for anxiety. I also take dexedrine which helps with social anxiety quite a bit. Therapy though was probably the most helpful thing to actually get to the root of my constant anxiety.

I'd say your dr is fucked in the head. there are serious long term side effects that can become permanent on high doses of seroquel, not worth it at all for treating anxiety.
 
Never heard of anyone getting seroquel for anxiety... really doesn't seem like it would be beneficial for that at all. It's great for sleep and helps a lot of people with schizophrenia, etc.
 
Yea. Another case of benzophobia by the medical comm. They would give that shit in rehab at night and i wouldnt take it bc i felt like a zombie all next day. Id maybe try the hydroxzine as suggested.
 
Fucking psychs putting everyone on seroquel. It works great for allergies too lets give people with allergies lots of seroquel! Fucking retards. Unless you have anxiety about seeing demons this is not the route you want to take.

Amen. I was put on seroquel in some sort of off-kilter attempt to manage depression! The doctor prescribed 3 25mg a day, which was of course far too much. I only took one at night and it would knock me out cold and give me freaky hyper-vivid dreams. The next day would be a thick fog and I'd get dizzy easily. Oh, and how about the whole gaining 10+ pounds on it part? Awful. The last straw was when I began to experience tics and twitches in my hands, face, and toes. Really damaging overkill. Avoid.
 
The reason I'm not prescribed Benzodiazepines is because I used to self-medicate with them often. I can still get them, but my tolerance is too high for it to be worth it, I decided to let the psychiatrist do the job until my tolerance to benzos lowers back down. I used to have to take +15mg (of Clonazepam) to feel anything, which is ridiculously high.

So far the side-effects are manageable, in fact, there aren't many. Seroquel only puts me to sleep if I take too much at the same time, like 400mg at once. I'm prescribed 600mg a day, which I take in 3 doses separately or in two doses, leaving the bigger one for the night. I wake up the next day feeling alright, not like a zombie or anything. The real problem was that I was extremely hungry at the beginning, but now I eat right and workout regularly to avoid getting fat.

I've heard of a lot of people complain that psychiatrist prescribe this medication very easily, probably because it has low abuse potential, you can't get high off of it. But for me, it's not so much that it makes me feel bad or gives me bad side-effects, it's more like it doesn't do what I want it to do. Like I said, I used to take benzos all by myself, so automatically my psychiatrist thinks I'm an addict and he prescribes me Clonazepam daily, which I turned down because I wasn't addicted and I didn't want to be, I just stopped and nothing happened. Benzos are very effective in my opinion, the problem is that they can be very addictive and they don't "cure" anything (they just make you feel better for the moment), but then again, no meds actually "cure" anything.
 
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